Or, again, the
call may come as plangent and insistent as the stroke of a fire-
alarm; the whole community hears and instantly understands; the
murder is out.
Now either of us could presume to measure the precise quality of
odic force inherent in the grisly mystery that lay under our hand;
the affair might range from the dignity of a cause celebre to the
commonplace of a purely commercial transaction--the economical
transportation of a medical college "subject." It was this very
uncertainty that fascinated our imaginations and so allowed the
sober judgment to be deposed. Our ostensible argument was that the
police would be sure to make a mess of the affair. If that idiot,
Detective Brownson, took hold of it, the goddess Justice might
throw up her hands as well as close her eyes. And inwardly we
desired to cherish our secret out of the same sense of fearful joy
with which one listens to a ghost story--we had tasted the coal-
black wine pressed from forbidden grapes, and we craved a yet
deeper draught. Finally, a connoisseur does not willingly
relinquish a good find, whatever the circumstances; there are
bibliomaniacs who will not hesitate to steal what they may not
otherwise procure. I myself know a charming woman who collects
Japanese sword-guards AT ANY COST (I have her husband's authority
for this statement).
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